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Posted by Don Snowden on August 03, 2000 at 09:11:32:
In Reply to: DMC vs RMPCT posted by Anonymous on June 28, 2000 at 11:31:22:
First of all, let me say that it is a good question. Due to my current position (i.e. working for CCI), I am relunctant to elaborate on this question.
I am familiar with the RMPCT package (although I haven’t taken a project from start to finish), and of course, intimately familiar with the DMCplus package. In my opinion, the offline package (ie identification and model building)of RMPCT is several years behind Aspentech's DMCplus package. The DMCplus Model package is a great tool to analyze plant testing data and can cut the analysis time down in half. For example, it has a lot of features to implement calculations. There are many additional options that I don’t really want to get into here. If Honeywell makes the commitment, they can bridge the gap rather quickly (e.g. 1 year). The real question is “are they committed to bridge this gap?”.
The RMPCT online package is in a much better position to compete with the DMCplus product. From my observation it is a viable product. Contrary to what many people say, RMPCT is not necessarily “easier” to tune than DMCplus. From my observations, it has basically a similar number of tuning knobs. They do give you some “default” parameters, but when you get right down to it, there are a similar number of knobs. But from my perspective, I wouldn’t really expect that having the ability to tune a controller to maximum performance is necessarily a bad thing. Thus the real issue is the “over-selling” of the idea by sales people.
The results of the RMPCT online package can also be difficult to interpret. This is not to say that the DMCplus Linear Program results are easy to interpret either. But RMPCT ability to throw things out of the problem and its interchanging of “limits” make it real difficult to understand what its trying to do. Part of this confusion could be that I need to spend more time understanding how the controller actually works to to better appreciate its abilities.
The bottom line is this. You must review the package yourself. If you haven’t implement advance control projects yourself, then you will want someone who has to work with you in evaluating the packages. You must bypass 90% of what any of the salesmen tell you. Get the software yourself and work with it. Go to each of the training courses.
I would also be careful in getting any thing for “free” or “discounted”. You must look at the longterm solution. What is the best option for your company when it comes to long term support, project work and maintenance? Which company (e.g. Honeywell or Aspentech) is committed to evolving their products and the layer products that compliment the control technology?